Tuesday, 10 November 2015

NASSAU, The Bahamas (November 10, 2015). Written by Robert Dunkley,
National Sailing School Director–

2015 was the second year The Bahamas National Sailing School
and Nassau Yacht Club have hosted the Cecil G Cooke Memorial Jr Regatta.Sponsored by Subway and organized by Sandra
Cooke, this regatta honors the late Cecil Cooke, one of this country’s great
sailors who competed with Sir Durward Knowles’ in the 1960 Tokyo Olympics when
they won the first ever gold medal for The Bahamas. Having a great interest in
youth sailing, he would have thoroughly enjoyed this weekend’s event, as did all
the youth and parents who participated.

This regatta was the largest junior sailing event ever in
Nassau and is one of four major junior regattas held each year in The Bahamas,
attracting sailors from a number of family islands. With 57 Participants from New
Providence, Grand Bahama, Harbour Island, Long Island and Abaco, the results
showed just how competitive our young sailors are throughout the country.

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The junior sailors with their swag bags. Photo by Ana Elisa Wassitsch

These juniors, depending on age, size and skill level, raced
in different classes/fleets, such as the Optimist Dinghy Championship Fleet for
experienced 8 to 15 year olds, Optimist Green Fleet for beginners, Sunfish,
Laser Radial and Laser 4.7 for older more advanced sailors.

Sailing conditions for this two-day, seven-race regatta were
perfect with a steady 10 to 12 knot breeze out of the east.

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Photo by Robert Dunkley

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Photo by Robert Dunkley

While there are winners of each fleet, the overall winner
and sailor whose name is inscribed on the Cecil G. Cooke perpetual trophy is
the first place finisher in the Optimist Championship Fleet as this is the
class in which our juniors begin their sailing. It is the youngest group and
because of this, the group Cecil Cooke would have been most supportive of.

That said, the overall winner this year is Tristan Eldon, a
13 year old from Nassau. He won convincingly in this competitive 26 boat fleet
by placing first in all seven races. This makes it his third major win this
year, the other two being KPMG Championship Regatta and The Bahamas Youth
Olympic Regatta. The Long Island trio of Isaac Fox, Luke Knowles and Enrique
Wells battled it out for the second and third place trophies. Isaac and Luke
were tied for second place and Enrique was one point behind them. Isaac won the
tie-break which gave him second, Luke was third and Enrique took fourth with
Melisha Higgins from Harbour Island taking top female. You couldn’t have asked
for any closer or more exciting racing.

Sandra Cooke presenting Tristan Eldon with his overall first place award. Photo by Ana Elisa Wassitsch

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Loretta Butler-Turner, MP for Long Island, offers her congratulations to Tristan Eldon on his overall win. Photo by Ana Elisa Wassitsch

Carson Miller from Long Island won the Optimist Green Fleet,
with Joshua Weech second and Jaxon Parker Searcy third, both from Nassau.

Helena Wassitsch took top honors in the Sunfish Fleet
closely followed by Jaqueline Frode, (both from Nassau) and Harbour Island’s
Antwuan Dean took third.

The Laser 4.7 class was won by Tahj Ramirez with five firsts
and two seconds. Robbie Carey took second and Daisy Tinkler third – all from
Nassau.

The Laser Radial class, in which our most advanced sailors
compete was won by Spencer Cartwright of Nassau with five firsts and two
seconds. Branden Sands from Cherokee Sound, Abaco was second and Cochise
Burrows from Nassau was third.

Congratulations to all the sailors and a special thank you
to Subway for sponsoring this event, now our most popular mixed class junior
regatta in the country.

Monday, 2 November 2015

Hailing from the tiny settlement of Cherokee, Abaco Branden
Sands and his younger sister Rachel showed their more experienced big city
rivals from Nassau just how to do it.
The only youth sailors in their tiny settlement, Branden and Rachel
largely train in a bubble of their own on Cherokee Sound with their father
coaching them but without the benefit of being able to train with other sailors
on a regular basis. When possible, their parents make the 40 minute trek with
them to Marsh Harbour and send them on the ferry to Hope Town, Abaco's only
active junior fleet with experienced coaches.
The perseverance of both he and his sister and the extensive
encouragement of their parents Tim and
Julie Sands is commendable.

Truly impressive is that, with the exception of attending a
number of regattas and training sessions in Nassau in the past two years,
Branden has trained with no real competition save that of his sister.Racing in big fleets requires skills sets
very different than those that can be learned while training with only one
partner.Branden showed that he learned
his lessons well during his various forays out of Abaco.

In a fabulous event held for the first time in Abaco hosted by
the Hope Town Sailing Club and delayed from it's original October 3-5 dates by
Hurricane Joaquin, 15 year old Branden won a closely fought battle to emerge the
clear winner over four time National Champion Spencer Cartwright, who took
second and Tristan Eldon third, both from Nassau. In a fleet of 30 boats Top female finisher was
Melisha Higgins of Harbour Island in sixth place overall. Branden's sister Rachel topped her age group
of 11-13 year olds and finished 11th overall. Noah Simmons of Harbour Island took top
honors for 8 to 10 year olds.
Top in the 19 boat Green Fleet for first time competitors was Joshua Weech from Nassau.

The ascension of the Family Island athletes is a testament to
the hard work and tireless involvement of the parents and volunteers in each of
the communities who operate their sailing programs with guidance from the
Bahama Sailing Association. Competitors
attended from Abaco, Grand Bahama, Harbour Island and Nassau. Sadly missed were the competitors from Mack
Knowles Sailing Club in Long Island who were unable to attend due to the
difficulties of transport and communication in the aftermath of Hurricane Joaquin. Understandably, their communities were
focused on the restoration of the schools and rebuilding their homes and
lives.

This win was made all the sweeter for Branden coming in his
home waters and because it was his last year of eligibility in the Optimist
Class. The Optimist Class is the largest
class of sailboats in the World, targeting children and youth from 8 to
15. The youth sailing community is
waiting with baited breath for next year's Nationals in which Melisha and
Rachel are expected to set the stage for a future of powerful if petite female
Bahamian sailors.

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Spencer Cartwright who is the current and 4 times National
Champion in the Optimist Dinghy class has now won the Bahamas Junior Sunfish
National Championship for his first time. Pushing hard and in the mix for top
honors was Cochise Burrows. Such close racing made for a very suspenseful and
exciting series. In the end Spencer beat Cochise by three points.

Melisha Higgins and Katelyn Cambridge (Harbour Island) #3957 coming out of the start in race #1.

Winds throughout the weekend were light to moderate and
fairly shifty from the west, which made for fun and interesting sailing. When
taking the lead in any of the races it was extremely hard to keep it.
Positions, particularly in the last race constantly changed. One might say it
was all about luck but in reality it was very much a game of patience,
“heads-up sailing” and outthinking the opponents in this twenty boat fleet.

Cochise Burrows (#197) leading the race with Spencer Cartwright (#3941) right behind him.

Thirteen sailors form Harbour Island and one form Long
Island participated and sailed extremely well. Paloma Cartwright from Long
Island was fifth overall and received honors as the Top Female.

Sailors racing were ages 12 to 17, with an average age of 14.
Almost all of them learnt to sail in the Optimist Dinghy class and have now
been sailing a few years. As Coach Dunkley put it, “ It is impressive to see how
well the youngsters from Harbour Island and Long Island are sailing. It is obvious
their sailing schools and clubs do a tremendous job in teaching them. So while
we congratulate the youngsters for their outstanding performance I would also
like to congratulate the organizers andcoaches in these communities – The Higgins family in Harbour Island,
especially Melvin Higgins who coaches the kids a number of days each week and
the Cartwright families, especially Zoe and Mellisa in Long Island, who do the
same. It is always a pleasure to have them sailing here with us”.

Daisy Tinkler receiving her Silver Place 1st place trophy.

Due to the number of competitors and not enough boats we ran
with a round-robin format on the first day which determined who sailed in the
Gold Fleet (top half) and Silver Fleet (bottom half) on the second day. Trophy
winners were; in Gold Fleet, first place Spencer Cartwright (Nassau), second
place Cochise Burrows (Nassau), third place Conner Pinder (Nassau); overall Top
Female Paloma Cartwright (Long Island); Silver Fleet, first place Daisy Tinkler
(Nassau), second place Madison Martinborough (Nassau) and third place Joshua
Higgins/Collen Woods (Harbour Island).

Congratulations to all the sailors and a special thank you
to the Nassau Yacht Club for hosting this event and again to the Bahamas
National Sailing School sponsors Bahamas Hot Mix, East Nassau Rotary, KPMG,
Bahamas Ferries, Royal Bank, Coca Cola, Odyssey Aviation, Cable Bahamas &
Cable Cares, Kerzner Corp., Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Education and
Ministry of Agriculture.

All the sailors with Robert Dunkley and Donico Brown on left and Donnie Martinborough on right